THIS month has seen the opening of a new hair salon in Darlington town centre.

Contemporary Salon has renovated a vacated unit, creating six jobs and with ambitious plans for expansion.

The salon interior reflects its name, with cool grey tiles, glass-beaded wallpaper, high chrome mirrors and a spectacular chandelier.

There’s a warm welcome, a complementary head massage, full colour consultations and choice of drinks from an extensive menu. At the backwash area, clients can relax on black leather massage chairs and washbasins that raise and lower electronically for the most comfortable position.

“We are about the experience and want to be able to bring a bit of spa luxury to our clients,” says Amanda Day. “We want clients to be relaxed and to enjoy the process of having their hair cut and to look forward to a bit of affordable luxury.

“From previous market research, it became clear that prices can vary wildly in salons and we wanted to be clear what people will be charged. We have created a menu for them to choose the colour range and experience of stylist to be able to suit their budget.”

Nicola Day, who leads the new team, regularly gets invited by L’Oreal to work on photo-shoots and last year assisted at London Fashion Week on the Top Shop show. Nicola is art director for the Contemporary Group as well as an educator at the Middlesbrough-based Contemporary Academy.

“Being able to bring new jobs to the town as well as new talent to our group has been extremely rewarding,”

she says.

Contemporary Salons can also be found in Guisborough, Harrogate, Marske, Middlesbrough, Stokesley, Stockton, Whitby and Yarm.

• Contemporary Darlington, 11-12 Horsemarket, Darlington DL1 5PW.

Tel: 01325-480930. contemporarysalons.com

WIN A CUT AND COLOUR

To celebrate the opening of the Darlington salon, Contemporary is offering one lucky reader the chance to win a colour and style consultation and cut and colour with art director Nicola Day. To stand a chance of winning, just tell us where the Contemporary Academy is based.

Answers, together with full contact details, to Contemporary Competition, Features, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF. By phone: Simply call 09013-600833 and leave your answer and details when prompted. By text: Send your text to 80360 starting with COLOUR leave a space, followed by your answer, name and contact details.

The closing date is Friday, June 10 and usual Newquest competition rules apply.

• Calls cost no more than 51p per call from a BT landline. Calls from mobiles and some other networks may cost more. Texts cost 50p plus your normal operator text charge. Telephone and text voting lines open 28/05/2011 and close 04/06/2011 at 23:59PM. For full terms visit newsquest co.uk/terms. Service Provided by Newsquest Media Group.